PEP tangles - my Zentangle Inspired Art blog

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Christmas

Wishing Everyone a Happy & Peaceful Christmas & New Year

front of card
angled close-up showing sparkly 'grounding' plus
 dimension of reindeer 
angled close-up showing sparkly 'grounding'
plus dimension & shine of tree
close-up showing pearlescence & sparkle of
 snowflakes against textured matt white cardstock
inside of card

The background was made following Heather Telford's sponging tutorial except that I used ColorBox pigment inkpads instead of Memento dye inkpads. The silver star is a sequin & the snowflakes were punched out of pearlescent paper some years ago using a punch that has since found its way to the metal & plastic recycling centre. The crystal gems decorating the snowflakes were from stash.

The reindeer & the tree are from the retired 'Traditional Christmas' sheet of Chocolate Baroque stamps. The reindeer was stamped in VersaFine Vintage Sepia, coloured with Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils blended using a dry paper stump & then cut out & shaped prior to mounting. The tree was stamped in VersaFine Olympia Green, wet embossed with clear embossing powder, then also cut out & shaped prior to mounting. Silver Ice Stickles Glitter Glue was used to 'ground' both the images & create a semblance of icy snow.

Since the card was made for a gentleman the inside was plainly decorated using navy & textured matt white cardstock with decorated corners (Xcut star punch & Woodware corner rounder).

Challenges Entered

Saturday 15 December 2012

Zigzag Ziggurat & Zentangle Alphatag

My "Z" tag for the Baroque Guild Alphatag swap is based around a Ziggurat (an Assyrian/Babylonian temple tower or staged tower in which each storey is smaller than that below it) of parcels with a zigzag pattern for the background. The inspiration for the pile of parcels came from The Gift of Christmas stamp sheet which I originally used but wasn't happy with as I wanted something more tactile. I was going to put a large "Z" at the top of the pile but it didn't look right at all - my husband suggested a star & that reminded me of the Christmas Auraknot Star that I've been drawing (see PEP tangles), hence I acquired another "Z" in the form of Zentangle. It is actually quite apt in terms of the Ziggurat for it is quite likely that the Zoroastrian priests or Magi who followed the star to Bethlehem for Jesus's birth spotted that star on one of their nightly scans of the sky from the top of one of their Ziggurat towers. (See here for Zoroastrianism and my fellow Alphatagger, Vronnie at Vroncards, who used the wise men for her "Z" tag).

front of tag
close-up of upper section showing Zentangle star
& overstamping of patterned paper on parcels
close-up of lower section showing the patterned
paper parcels tied with different metallic threads
close-up showing dimension of wet embossed
"Z" plus zigzag background
close-up showing dimension  & layering
of Zentangle star plus zigzag background
back of tag 
close-up showing paper pierced scallops & inked edges
of theme panel plus textured pearlescent ivory cardstock

The parcels were made by wrapping oddments of the patterned paper around different sizes of thick cardstock & then tying assorted colours of metallic thread round them. The paper for the top two parcels wasn't particularly patterned so these were overstamped before wrapping. The creasing of the patterned paper when folding such small pieces occasioned some 'white cracking' which was "removed' by running the tip of a Coloursoft pencil in an appropriate colour along the sides of the parcels.

For the star shape I drew around a large star gem & enlarged it to the size I wanted & then tangled with a brown fineliner using the Auraknot pattern skipping two points (see here for a detailed explanation). A brown Coloursoft pencil with a paper stump was used for the shading. Two of the stars were offset & layered in order to achieve the ten-pointed dimensional star as above.

Recipe
Stamps Elusive Images UA4HC0177  ATC Art Plate (zigzag pattern); Chocolate Baroque UA4 SP0150 Texture Blocks (overstamping patterned paper) & UA6GW0211 Celebrations Alphabet ("Z" letters).
Inks Chestnut ColorBox Pigment "Cat's Eye" (tone on tone backgroud stamping, Memento Tangelo (overstamping patterned paper), Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink (inking various cardstock edges), Emboss Tinted Stamp Pad with Stewart Gill Metallic Copper Embossing Powder ("Z" letters).
Pencils/Markers etc... Staedtler Triplus Fineliner & Derwent Coloursoft pencils with paper stump, Signo uni-ball copper gel pen.
Cardstock Brown, cream & textured pearlescent ivory from stash.
Paper Graphicus Guild Membership Pack.
Die Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Bookplates.
Punches EK Success (small circle), Woodware (scalloped squares).
The gems & ribbon are from stash. 

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Yin Yang Yule Alphatag

My "Y" Baroque Guild Alphatag was initially inspired by my looking for tangle patterns beginning with "Y" in some of the Zentangle Books that Glenda stocks at Chocolate Baroque. In Zentangle 4 I spotted the Yin Yang Leaf. I then thought of a Fractal Tree, one thing led to another & as I was looking through my stamp reference file I caught sight of a Christmas tree image constructed from "Y" shapes. So, I acquired Yule as well. When it came to actually making my tag that particular image proved too large but I had a vague recollection that there was a branch with a bird image on one of Glenda's theme plates & found it on Sing Your Song. I used part of the image & decided to abandon Yule & just concentrate on using the Yin and Yang concept of dualities as in light (white) & dark (deep green). But Yule had other ideas: as I was looking through my Graphicus Guild (Chocolate Baroque's antecedent) papers for a suitable sheet I found one just the right colour green with snowflakes on - Yule in theme - & upon looking a bit more closely the snowflake is basically constructed from "Y" shapes.

front of tag
close-up showing detail Yin Yang leaves 
close-up showing upper wet embossed white tree panel
 & overstamping of patterned paper - the "Y" shape
is clearly visible in both
close-up showing central section with
 detail of Yin Yang symbol
close-up showing lower wet embossed green tree panel
& overstamping of patterned paper
back of tag
close-up showing paper pierced scallops & inked edges
of theme panel plus patterned paper background

The Yin Yang leaves & the symbol were hand drawn using a Whispers Brush Marker; the symbol's circular shape being obtained using a small punch.

The white tree was wet embossed onto dark green cardstock using the VersaMarker watermark pen & white embossing powder whereas the dark green tree was wet embossed onto white cardstock using VersaFine Olympia Green & clear embossing powder. Each tree was cut out (giving a whole new meaning to the term of "fussy cutting") & mounted onto a scalloped circle of the appropriate colour cardstock. I was really pleased with the dimension, shine & contrast achieved which can be seen in the following angled photographs.




Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA5SP0255 Sing Your Song (tree) & UA5SP0368 Stained Glass Christmas (snowflake).
Inks VersaFine Olympia Green with Stewart Gill Ultrafine Embossing Powder (green tree), VersaMarker Watermark Pen with Stampendous Detail White Embossing Powder (white tree), Memento Bamboo Leaves (snowflakes) & Cottage Ivy (inking various cardstock & paper edges).
Pens/Markers etc... Whispers Brush Marker, White Pentel K118 Hybrid Gel Pen.
Cardstock White & green from stash.
Paper Graphicus Guild Membership Pack.
Die Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Bookplates.
Punches Woodware (scalloped circles & scalloped squares), EK Success (small circle).
The gems are Anita's & the ribbon is from stash.

Challenges Entered
Stamping Sensations December Challenge - TreeMendous
Penny Black & More December Challenge - It's Your Choice

Saturday 8 December 2012

The Holly.........


Some of you know that we live on a Brecon hillside with part of our garden being woodland. The photo above shows the bank rising up to the wooded area & the stump you see is what remains of one of the many holly bushes (more like trees). We're on our fifth stump now - this was the first before we managed to extract it - working on dry days & as fast as we can before the snowfalls start.

As far as artwork is concerned I've managed a couple of tangle tiles which you can see HERE.